You Can Make A Difference

You Can Make A Difference

Esther 4:1-4:17

In our world, it’s easy to underestimate the significance of one. What can I as one individual contribute to the overwhelming needs of our world, our church, etc.?

But the truth is, No one else can do the things that God has called and gifted you to do.

History is full of accounts of single individuals who have made a difference.

1. Think of battles that have turned on the axis of

one heroic person.

2. Think of the scientists, the inventors, the

explorers, and the technological experts that have

invented, found,and contributed

3. Think of the courageous preachers who have stood

alone in the gap and made a difference.

4. The face of the church was changed by significant

individuals—men like Augustine, Tyndale, Luther,

Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, to name only a few.

Another angle, think of the difference one vote can make.

• In 1649, one vote caused Charles I of England to be

executed;

• In 1776, one vote gave America the English language

instead of German;

• In 1845, one vote brought Texas into the union;

• In 1868, one vote saved President Andrew Johnson

from impeachment.

• In 1923, one vote gave Adolph Hitler control of the

Nazi party

From Genesis to Revelation, you can see God’s hand on individuals who thought and said and did what was right—regardless—.

Not many stories about great crusades and city-wide

revivals and mass meetings in the Word of God. More

often, I find individual men and women who made a

difference.

And only one woman named Esther decided it was worth

the risk to break with protocol and speak her mind,

and a nation was preserved.

I. The Jews have been threatened with extermination.

A. Wicked Haman has influenced King Ahasuerus or

Zurk-sez to order the Jews killed Because

Mordecai wouldn’t bow to him

1. What terror this struck in their hearts, what

fear in their minds!

2. “How can we continue?” “How can we fight this?”

3. This is the law of the Medes and the Persians.

It was final. Nobody could change this plan,

certainly no Jew.

4. It seemed like a hopeless situation.

God was not sleeping. He determined one person would make the difference. On this occasion, her name is Esther.

verse 1.When Mordecai found out about everything that

had been done, he tore his clothes and put on

sackcloth and ashes. He went into the middle

of the city and cried loudly and bitterly.

ILLUSTRATION:

When in bankruptcy or living with a dread disease or having buried a family member or having gone through some terrible disaster in one’s city, people in Esther’s day would commonly wear loose-fitting, dark-colored coarse garments made of goat’s hair, which hung on them like a large gunnysack. On top of that, they would take ashes from the remains of a fire and throw them on themselves so they would be covered with them and appear ghastly and unclean. Sometimes they would even sit in the midst of a cold ash heap and throw the ashes on themselves as a vivid expression of their grief.

B. Mordecai holds nothing back. His grief knows no

bounds. In sackcloth and ashes he stumbles toward

the gate of the palace.

v-2. He even went right up to the king’s gate.

(No one could enter it wearing sackcloth.)

1. Susa, the capital, was not the only place where

such Demonstrations of mourning were taking

place. t’s a picture of widespread sorrow and

loud mourning.

Verse 3 In every province touched by the king’s

command and decree, the Jews went into

mourning, fasting, weeping, and wailing.

Many put on sackcloth and ashes.

2. Hardship forces us to grab hands with one pull

up closer together.

Verse 4. Esther’s servants and eunuchs came and

informed her ëabout Mordecaiû. The queen was

stunned. She sent clothing for Mordecai to

put on in place of his sackcloth, but he

refused to accept it.

B. Esther cannot speak to Mordecai directly, so she

sends him clothing to replace his sackcloth, as a

way of offering comfort to him for whatever has

happened.

1. But Mordecai refused the clothing.

2. Esther then sends one of the king’s servants

to find out the truth from Mordecai.

Vv 5-8 Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs appointed to serve her. She commanded him to go to Mordecai and find out what was going on and why.6So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the city square in front of the king’s gate. 7Mordecai informed him about everything that had happened to him. He told him the exact amount of silver that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasury to destroy the Jews. 8He also gave him a copy of the decree that was issued in Susa. The decree gave permission to exterminate the Jews. Hathach was supposed to show it to Esther to inform and command her to go to the king, beg him for mercy, and appeal to him for her people.